Soil formations situated above a fault are often deformed by fault rupture propagation due to large earthquakes. This faulting often causes damage to underground lifelines, such as tunnels and pipelines, located in the shear zone formed by the fault movement. The paper studies the deformation behavior of the overburden soils and its influence on the buried structures by means of 2D FE simulations. The numerical model is validated using a case history from the literature, a tunnel cross section in Greece. A buried pipeline is modeled based on that validation. The effect of fault rupture on the movement of the free ground surface is studied first. The fault rupture – soil – pipeline interaction with and without mitigation measures is simulated afterwards. Based on the identified mechanisms, the application of all-around low density backfill or/and geogrid reinforcement beneath the buried pipeline is discussed. Results for various horizontal distances between the center of the pipeline and the fault tip are presented.